VuStik offers options for video or direct laryngoscopy

If you don't get a good initial direct view, use the screen on the VuStik handpiece to help you find your target

The VuStik is a new, easy-to-use video laryngoscopy device. It uses your existing motor skills rather than requiring you to develop all new ones, and makes difficult intubation easier and visually verifies the correct placement of every ET tube.

Photo Dan White

It offers several other important advantages for EMS providers. The VuStik handpiece is a durable and lightweight hand-held unit with a 2.4" 320 x 240-resolution color monitor.

The handpiece houses the screen, LED light, battery, ports and controls. The VuStik stylet attaches to the handpiece, and is malleable to your preferred shape for tube introduction. The single-use stylet incorporates an auto focus CMOS camera chip with a fiber optic light bundle.

Use the VuStik with your established intubation technique, holding the laryngoscope in your left hand and the VuStik with ETT in your right. If you get a good view initially, just put the tube in. The LED-lighted VuStik stylet will help illuminate your target during final tube insertion.

If you don’t get a good initial direct view, use the screen on the VuStik handpiece to help you find your target. You can follow the ET tube through the vocal cords.

In this way, the VuStik provides a graduated level of response to every airway challenge. It can be used for either direct laryngoscopy (DL) or video laryngoscopy (VL) as your need requires.

I like that it’s small enough to fit into an already stuffed airway kit. You won’t notice any new extra weight in your bag. I tried but could not make the single-use CMOS camera chip fog up.

This is a real problem with some other video devices. The VuStik could also reduce the need for secondary tube verification, because you can see where the tip of the ET tube really is.

Have you ever needed to intubate a patient in a difficult position or with limited access? The convenient flip button turns the image upside down or right side up, as the need arises.

If you need more light, the brightness button gives you control of screen illumination. When you are done, it automatically turns off when you detach the used stylet.

The VuStik will run for more than 5 hours continuously. It has a green charging indicator light that goes out once it is fully charged, and a red light that indicates when the battery is down to 25 percent power.

After my initial evaluations, I chucked it around a little to see how rugged it is. It has taken a few impressive falls to the floor and a table top without failing or showing any signs of damage; it is apparently even more rugged than it looks.

It reminds me of one of my favorite airway devices, the Clarus Medical Levitan FPS Scope. That is because the Levitan also offers a graduated response and a malleable stylet.

The VuStick adds a color screen, plus you don’t have to cut down the ET tube length. With the VuStick you can use any ET tube down to a size 5.0 with a simple adjustment and only one size of disposable.

It is also one of the least expensive video intubation devices I have seen to date. The suggested retail price of the VuStik is $595, and the single-use VuStik stylets are $50 each.

It has a full one-year warranty and is engineered, assembled and tested right here in the USA. For more information, contact VOscope at info@voscope.com.

About the author

Dan White, EMT-P works for Intersurgical, Inc. as the National Account Manager for EMS. Immediately prior he ran Arasan, LLC. He served as Sales & Marketing Director for Truphatek, Inc. and before that Director of Corporate Planning & Product Development for AllMed. He has been certified as a paramedic since 1978 and an EMS and ACLS instructor since 1981. Dan has designed many emergency medical products since his first, the White Pulmonary Resuscitator, including the Prolite Speedboad, Cook Needle Decompression Kit and RapTag Triage System. His more recent EMS product designs are the Arasan Ultra EMS Coat and the B2 Paramedic Helmet. To contact Dan, email dan.white@ems1.com.

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